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Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?

• mindcrime 4y ago
  That would be a long list, given that I read a lot of books and would generally say that most of the books I've read were worth investing time in to some extent. But for what it's worth, here's a subset, cribbed from my previous HN comments: Something Deeply Hidden - Sean Carroll The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel Lost in Math - Sabine Hossenfelder The First Three Minutes - Steven Weinberg Hyperspace - Michio Kaku Not Even Wrong - Peter Woit The Trouble With Physics - Lee Smolin About Time - Paul Davies Time Reborn - Lee Smolin The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene The Hidden Reality - Brian Greene The Fabric of the Cosmos - Brian Greene Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe - Jim Baggott The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature's Deepest Secrets - Graham Farmelo Three Roads To Quantum Gravity - Lee Smolin Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos - Seth Lloyd Higgs - The invention and discovery of the 'God Particle' - Jim Baggott Analogy Making As Perception - Melanie Mitchell Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky Engineering General Intelligence, Part 1 - Ben Goertzel Engineering General Intelligence, Part 2 - Ben Goertzel The AGI Revolution - Ben Goertzel Hackers & Painters by our very own Paul "pg" Graham Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution - Steven Levy The Soul of a New Machine - Tracy Kidder Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier - Katie Hafner & John Markoff Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology - Steven Levy Ghost In The Wires - Kevin Mitnick The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick The Art of Intrusion - Kevin Mitnick Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand It's Not About The Bike - Lance Armstrong Ultramarathon Man - Dean Karnazes Charles Proteus Steinmetz: The Electrical Wizard of Schenectady - Robert Bly Report From Engine Co 82 - Dennis Smith Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! - Al Ries and Jack Trout Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin Marketing High Technology - William H. Davidow Marketing Warfare - Al Ries The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema Crossing The Chasm - Geoffrey Moore How to Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• thefz 4y ago
  Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is an obvious recommendation. The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell will ruin fiction for you, from the classic myth up to modern storytelling.
• nazgulnarsil 4y ago
  Opening the Heart of Compassion is one of only a few (and the best imo) English language expositions on the Buddhist model of human psychology and I found it enormously illuminating and applicable. Many get put off by the first section which has a bunch of stuff about Tibetan Buddhist deities, but the sections on the realms in part two are amazing. It also very briefly touches on a transformative practice called aspirational inquiry about investigating your own motivations. It seems to have been independently discovered by Connierae Andreas and is the subject of her book Core Transformation.
• konfusinomicon 4y ago
  a controversial opinion to some, and in no way the ideology I subscribe to fully, but the books on unqualified reservations are quite an interesting read, albeit very long winded
• Ologn 4y ago
  I bought Androids by Chet Haase when it was released a year ago and just finished reading it last week. It is about the creation of the Android operating system, from its inception until around the time of the release of the Motorola Droid (the first large-selling Android phone) in 2009. The book is 381 pages, and each chapter is fairly discrete. One chapter talks about the graphics team and their work, another chapter talks about the design of the Dalvik Virtual Machine, another talks about the team getting the telephony components working. For a long time I have been picking up and reading a chapter when I have the time, and plane trips are especially good for that. It was written by a graphics engineer who worked on the Android team, so it has some of that insider technical feel to it. Chet writes that he tried to make it accessible to the layperson too. One interesting thing is how Android was formed from the remnants of teams from Danger, Palm/Be, and WebTV/Microsoft, who all had their own ideas on how to do these devices the right way (and what not to do). Also the project was not done slowly and carefully, but was a mad dash to get something out before something like iPhone completely took over the market. Some of the coding specialists they needed probably could not have passed Google's interview bar at the time, so Android was kind of a company within the company, which could bypass Google's interview bar in some cases. I am an Android programmer so the book was especially interesting to me. It started out as a Javascript demo of an operating system for digital cameras in 2003. Android became an operating system that is actively being used by three billion mobile devices by 2022. So it as an interesting story of exponential growth, in the not too distant past.
• chiefalchemist 4y ago
  I didn't see it mentioned yet: "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. Don't let the title fool you. Its insights aren't limited to art. And very readable.
• oldsklgdfth 4y ago
  This Is Water by David Foster Wallace. It's the transcript of a commencement speech he gave. It's really short. I revisit it because it reminds me that everything is a matter of what you choose to think about. It's about realize that your thoughts are illusions and not becoming a slave to them. I work for FAANG, so I struggle with reality on a daily basis.
• westcort 4y ago
  "Practical Statistics Simply Explained" by Russel Langley was an excellent introduction to statistical concepts that gives one a real "feel" for how to apply statistics in real-world use. I highly recommend working all of the problems in the text.
• seer-zig 4y ago
  The Quran. It really puts things into perspective and helps organize your life. Many of today's mental illnesses for example are due to the lack of faith, did people stop to think why there has been an explosion of mental illnesses in the past few decades?
• kashyapc 4y ago
  I'll mention two of mine. NB: they demand sustained reading and require nontrivial time investment. The patient reader will be handsomely rewarded. - Behave, by Robert Sapolsky. Here's[1] my mini review from the past. I've also picked up various other fascinating books from Behave. - Seneca's all of 124 letters. A good English translation is key here. Get the edition published Chicago University; translated by Anthony Long and Margaret Graver. (Related: I wrote about high quality translations by top scholars of Stoic works here[2].) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25559890 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25559890 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990579 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990579
  • westcort 4y ago
    One of my favorite essays by Seneca is his letter to Serenus, three of my favorite quotations of which are here: What, then, is there to prevent your believing this strength of mind to belong to the wise man, when you can see the same thing existing in others, though not from the same cause?—for what physician is angry with a crazy patient? who takes to heart the curses of a fever-stricken one who is denied cold water? The wise man retains in his dealings with all men this same habit of mind which the physician adopts in dealing with his patients, whose parts of shame he does not scorn to handle should they need treatment, nor yet to look at their solid and liquid evacuations, nor to endure their reproaches when frenzied by disease. Just as the hardness of some stones is impervious to steel, and adamant can neither be cut, broken, or ground, but blunts all instruments used upon it; just as some things cannot be destroyed by fire, but when encircled by flame still retain their hardness and shape; just as some tall projecting cliffs break the waves of the sea, and though lashed by them through many centuries, yet show no traces of their rage; even so the mind of the wise man is firm, and gathers so much strength, that it is as safe from injury... If we accept with an undisturbed and tranquil mind that greatest terror of all, beyond which the angry laws and the most cruel masters have nothing to threaten us with, in which fortune’s dominion is contained—if we know that death is not an evil, and therefore is not an injury either, we shall much more easily endure the other things, such as losses, pains, disgraces, changes of abode, bereavements, and partings, which do not overwhelm the wise man even if they all befall him at once, much less does he grieve at them when they assail him separately.
• SergeAx 4y ago
  Just read books. Most of the books are worth investing at least some time into it. You may always close the book if you are not happy with it, and put it away. Anyway, any decent book is much better than the best internet article.
• Matake007 4y ago
  The Millionaire Fastlane - MJ DeMarco 12 Rules for Life - Jordan Peterson The Carnivore Diet - Paul Saladino The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
• dbs 4y ago
  The lion trackers guide to life - Boyd Varty I don’t know where we are going but I know exactly how to get there
• dennis_jeeves1 4y ago
  Interesting, why do you ask that question? ( sorry I'm not answering your question directly). I personally find that beyond a point ( my point of course), it's worthless reading most books, the theme repeats and it then is a waste of time unless it's either entertainment or you if have a short memory.
• mbrodersen 4y ago
  “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. The most impactful book I have ever read. It completely changed how I handle my personal finances and think about money. It also made me deeply understand why high earning rich people go broke all the time.
• DocTomoe 4y ago
  Just because this post made me remind this page, which may be useful for people looking for stuff to read: https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-hacker-news https://hackernewsbooks.com/top-books-on-hacker-news
• alessiosantocs 4y ago
  Just finished reading the second book of Dune and loved it. Would recommend it to anyone who's into science fiction. Cheers!
• a5y 4y ago
  Harry Potter
• curious16 4y ago
  I am going to list two books. Fiction: Jurassic Park by M Crichton. Just for the world build up and writing Non-Fiction: The Machinery of Life by David Goodsell. I fell in love with biology again after reading this book. The wonderful illustrations make the book come alive.
• monetus 4y ago
  Nim in Action - a language book with syntax and the like of course, useful, but also one that tries to teach concepts from first principles.
• sailorganymede 4y ago
  Don Quixote. It was released about 500 years ago but it's good to know what was funny back then is still now
• reverse_list 4y ago
  As an atheist, Seneca's Moral letters to Lucilius is my bible. My compass when life gets hard.
  • TwoCent 4y ago
    It's excellent for those of us who aren't atheists, too. I've picked up the recent University of Chicago translation of these, and cultivated the habit of reading a letter or two every morning with my coffee. It's an excellent use of time. I also found Seneca's "On the Shortness of Life" completely recalibrated my thinking about the passage of time and how I spend the time allotted me.
• p-e-w 4y ago
  Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner is probably the best nonfiction book I've ever read. It not only contains profound philosophical insights, but presents them in a concise and approachable manner. Every chapter ends with a recapitulation of the chapter's contents (why isn't this standard?). The book is short and deals with a single topic. It gets to the point rather than beating around the bush, and completely avoids invoking metaphysical explanations or political implications. I truly cannot praise it enough.
• gurjeet 4y ago
  1. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 2. The Selfish Gene 3. Podcast: Kings of Kings https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings/ https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings... Each one of these were worth every minute of read/listen. Edit to add: The world around us feels like it was created as we see it today. But these books and the podcast, combined, show us how we got here, where we are today. Wars, long periods of peace, pandemics, evolution, human adaptability, luck, there are so many things that brought us where we are today. It's not a given, and we can lose it all and be pushed back to stone age, or further back, if we take our current progress for granted.
  • sgdpk 4y ago
    The Selfish Gene is great. The portions on Evolutionary Stable Strategies are particularly interesting. It shows how Darwinism can lead to a "steady state", where a population contains individuals with competing characteristics (selflessness VS selfishness), and why this not at odds with selection.
    • benzin 4y ago
      The jaw-dropping moment for this point is the section about bees, even if the author himself said it was very hard to understand. It reframed my understanding of a 'queen' bee at least.
    • mongol 4y ago
      Yes it is certainly a classic, I think it belongs to a category of books that really changes how society at large reasons about things. There are not that many books of that kind.
  • wikfwikf 4y ago
    I would take a lot of the unevidenced narrative in 'Sapiens' with a huge pinch of salt. Both the book and the author have been criticized, rightly in my opinion, the former for elevating the theories of a very specific and ideological branch of anthropology to facts, and the latter for being a grifter who does not know much about anthropology.
• idonthaveanacc2 4y ago
  What Every Body Says. It's about understanding body language, I feel like it has helped me understand others better sometimes.
• whoooooo123 4y ago
  From the pov of my career: Designing Data-Intensive Applications is the only technical book I've ever read that I felt was worth the time it took me to read it. It's excellent - I learned a ton, I keep going back to it, and if I'd read it as a fresh graduate it could have saved me a lot of trouble. I've read a few other of the popular programmer books eg Clean Code, Refactoring, the Pragmatic Programmer, Working Effectively With Legacy Code, and I didn't get much value from any of them. They're not bad, it's just that they didn't teach me much that I hadn't already picked up on the job, and I didn't feel like a book was the best way to learn their lessons as opposed to just picking up what you need to know from Google, colleagues, etc, over the years as you gain experience.
  • hardlianotion 4y ago
    What was your approach to reading and getting value from it?
    • whoooooo123 4y ago
      Slowly and methodically, taking lots of notes.
  • jmcgough 4y ago
    Reading DDIA right now and I second this - the best technical book I've read, still holds up well after five years.
• zx10rse 4y ago
  Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
• practal 4y ago
  "An Algebraic Approach to Non-Classical Logics" by Helena Rasiowa was an eye-opener for me. Before that, "A short introduction to intuitionistic logic" by Gregory Mints is a great read which introduced me to Kripke models (and made me see that intuitionism can be understood classically in an intuitive way), but Rasiowa's book just unlocked how I saw logic from then on.
• dvh 4y ago
  Speaker for the Dead. It is a second book in Enders game franchise so you will probably need to read the first book first or watch the movie, but second book is mostly independent of the first one.
  • doitLP 4y ago
    As one of the great books of science fiction and just plain excellent story-telling, don’t do yourself a disservice by watching the movie. It is so very bad. Just read the book. It is worth it.
    • dvh 4y ago
      The movie actually made me read books so it's not complete waste.
• nafizh 4y ago
  1. After Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyre 2. The Crisis of the Modern World by Rene Guenon 3. Islam and the Destiny of Man by Gai Eaton IMO these books are critical reading in a post-modern world to make any sense of life.
• przefur 4y ago
  If I were to choose three fiction, those would make the cut. Fiction: The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem - It shed light on me in regards to microelectronics, swarm intelligence. Nothing ever eased my learning curve more for genetic algorithms like this short novel! It is also a good read in general. It also taught me that the difference in scientific vs force vs emotional approach to unknown. Would recommend as a springboard from a day-to-day acitivities. Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky - a Soviet sf classic, I've read it 3x already. It tells a story about a closed zone where 'aliens' left their artifcats, and how that changed people around them. Ender's Game - I don't think there is an explanation needed. It is a total classic. It helps a lot to understand outsiders, not just aliens but a humans too. All of the above are either hard or soft sf.
  • narrator 4y ago
    +1 for Roadside Picnic. I love how unbelievably melancholy that book is. The amount of smoking and drinking in every scene is kind of amusing too. It definitely hits that noir sci-fi vibe. Like what if the future goes kind of wrong, but not necessarily dystopian.
  • pjc50 4y ago
    I'd not heard of The Invincible, but Solaris had a transformative effect on me and you've convinced me to read the first two items on your list. Didn't Roadside Picnic become Tarkovsky's Stalker?
    • maest 4y ago
      > Didn't Roadside Picnic become Tarkovsky's Stalker? Indeed, it did -- it also spawned the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." game series, which really nails down the derelict industrial soviet aesthetic.
  • olivermuty 4y ago
    Did you also like the rest of the books? It got pretty deep into religious nutcase territory eventually. I didn't actually know all the religious controversy around the series before I read the books, so I got to experience that solid increase of "wtf??" moments as the trilogy progressed. The first book is pretty darn good though, won't argue that!
• jstrebel 4y ago
  Bill Gates - How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need Finally a book that approaches climate change from an engineering perspective and focuses on possible, constructive solutions.
  • vaylian 4y ago
    I like the book as well. But I think it suffers a bit too much from technooptimism for answering the question "how to avoid a climate disaster". I appreciate Bill Gates's optimism, but it's a dangerous gamble to only talk about technical solutions and leave societal and cultural aspects off the table. With that in mind: It's still a very good book.
• joshxyz 4y ago
  Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Insightful and relate-able in a lot of ways.
• Ligma123 4y ago
  Meditations - Marcus Aurelius Republic - Plato Laws - Cicero National System of Political Economy - Friedrich List Man and Technics - Oswald Spengler The Bible
  • pjc50 4y ago
    The Bible is not exactly .. readable? Embarking on actually reading it all the way through and understanding the references is a serious project of literary archaeology, even armed with a concordance and a Greek lexicon. Then you run in to the various hapax legomenon: the words for which we have exactly one example in one sentence in the Bible, and are forced to guess the meaning of the word from context. Then three years later you emerge blinking into the sunlight with a deep understanding of the spirituality of the European Iron age .. then what?
    • dsr3 4y ago
      The Bible, directly and indirectly, is one of the major contributor to Western Civilization. While most of them has been secularized, large amount of ideas that we take for granted or consider common in the Western Civilization, such as equality of all man and inherent dignity of human, could be traced back to The Bible. A good understanding of The Bible would give you an understanding on the process of how Western Civilization is formed as it is today. Stanford Western Culture class had Book of Genesis and New Testaments as part of required reading [0]. [0] https://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9705/9705ncf1.html https://web.stanford.edu/dept/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9705/970...
      • wikfwikf 4y ago
        I don't think that this is really correct. For around 1500 years, most philosophical, political and religious thought in Europe had to be justified by referring back to the Bible. Therefore the arguments that equality, liberalism, democracy, and so on have their roots in the Bible are well rehearsed but they are not falsifiable nor, for the most part, true. The political philosophy underpinning the stories in Genesis (much older than the Torah), is very different from that of the Babylon era when the Pentateuch was compiled. The Second Temple Era is very different from both of these. The historical context, and the political content of Christianity in Christ's era (or in the era of the early Gospels) is yet again different, and the context of the later, Pauline Christian books yet again another thing. Modern (post-Lutheran) scholarship sees each of these eras as a development or a refinement moving towards a better fulfilment of God's word, however the contemporary view was that many of these developments were revolutionary, iconoclastic, or heretical. The Bible is undoubtedly an extremely rich historical document. However, the work of understanding its meaning and its legacy on some modern cultural and ethnic groups is not straightforward. Someone who reads widely through the Bible from the Pentateuch to the New Testament and believes to discern a single unifying philosophical theme or a coherent message to humanity either has not really understood most of it, or is schizophrenic. (Note that reading the Book of Genesis and the New Testament is a very different thing to reading the entire Bible. Many people who think they are able to comment on 'The Bible' really only know the Gospels + Genesis + Exodus, or some other subset such as the Gideon 'Bible'.) Of course, 'Western Civilization' is somewhat synonymous with a culture that takes the Bible seriously and attributes a sort of mystical energy to it, while not necessarily honouring the stated precepts of Christianity (or Judaism). This makes the fact that the Bible is widely read and referred to something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, sometimes combined with jingoistic innuendo that people without a Christian-inspired culture are not capable of democracy, or tolerance or creative thought, or some other shiboleth of 'Western Civilization'. There are much less obscure texts, roughly contemporary with the Bible, which discuss humanistic values such as might be associated with 'Western Civilization'. Some of these have been treated as holy by various religious groups including Early Christians, or as of a quasi-religious importance in the organization of society and its institutions. Many of these were widely read throughout the Christian era and are much easier to see as having influenced 'Enlightenment' and 'Modern Secular' values. For example, Plato's Republic. Any suggestion that the Bible is more important than that or similar works to gain "an understanding of the process of how Western Civilization is formed as it is today" just seems to me to be a hangover from Christian apologetics and bigotry. tl;dr Placing an importance on the Bible because it's a founding text of 'equality of all man and inherent dignity of human' is no different than condemning it as a founding text of the transatlantic slave trade, or of Nazism.
• patates 4y ago
  Science fiction suggestion: The Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. Always makes me think that as a species how we come to peace with and normalize extraordinary events.
  • Bakary 4y ago
    I suggest reading the Chronoliths as well.
• epolanski 4y ago
  - The Way of The Superior Man. The only "self help" book I give any credit. It really boils down to encouraging people to have a purpose in life and accept ourselves. - The Stupidity Paradox. Ever feel the world works in a "stupid" way? That your organization keeps promoting stupid ideas? Read this book and get into the roots of functional stupidity. It's a bit repetitive, but extremely insightful book. - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. The book I most recommend for any software professional.
  • closeparen 4y ago
    Framing SICP as a book is a little misleading. I mean, it is a book, but mostly it's a collection of ~350 programming exercises. Exercise solving time will dominate reading time like 10:1. It's worth it! But plan accordingly.
    • babarock 4y ago
      I've spent much more time in sicp on text (and video lecture) than I did exercises. I also read it on my own time, not in class, and it took me many months to go through it. I guess everyone has a different way of approaching this.
      • closeparen 4y ago
        Did you do all the exercises? Some of them go by in a minute or two, others have taken me 6-8 hours with sessions over multiple days. That is probably my main gripe with what is otherwise excellent pedagogy, the unpredictability and variance makes it difficult to set progress goals or schedule.
  • tmaly 4y ago
    Aside from being insightful, was there any key takeaways or actionable things in The Stupidity Paradox ?
  • newsoul 4y ago
    SICP. When do you recommend software devs read it? Beginning of their journey or mid journey?
• brutusborn 4y ago
  The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen. As a person who hadn't finished a book in years, hadn't felt excited by a book, this reminded me of what it felt like to not be able to put a book down. It is non-fiction but written as a narrative. It was a good mix of history, economics, politics and business. I cannot recommend it enough.
• BigHatLogan 4y ago
  Two come to mind. "Travels" by Michael Crichton, and "Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man" by Steve Alpert. Both are good, but neither is exceptional. But their different approaches to storytelling have been important.
• rvieira 4y ago
  Disclaimer: These books changed the way I think primarily because I've read them quite young (early/mid teens) and as such, were formative. 1. The Morning of the Magicians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morning_of_the_Magicians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Morning_of_the_Magicians) This book, although many (most?) of its claims are disproved really had an impact on me since it showed me that there could be _a lot_ more in the world than meets the eye. Everything around us and in history is filled with mysteries, unanswered questions. You could find interesting things everywhere. I would say the content is not the important part, but it instills the curiosity to dig deeper. 2. Memories, Dreams, Reflections (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memories,_Dreams,_Reflections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memories,_Dreams,_Reflections) A semi-autobiography of Carl Jung. It made me realise how "meta-programmable" humans are. How much of how we think can be though upon, itself. How we can introspect on our thoughs ... with our thoughts. Basically, made me in awe of conscious beings. 3. Ficciones (Fictions, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficciones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficciones) This is classic from Jorge Luis Borges. It showed me at the time "experimental" literature. How can one can push story-telling to another level, like many other art forms have done.
  • martopix 4y ago
    Reading Borges as a teen is marvelous. I tried rereading it last year and liked it, but wasn't mind blown in the same way.
• yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
  - Practical Vim - Seven Languages in Seven Weeks Career changing for me.
  • ankur_sao 4y ago
    How did they change you career? Was the change in terms of how you think or quality of code you wrote?
    • yakshaving_jgt 4y ago
      Certainly both. SLiSW was eye-opening. At the time, all I knew was PHP and JavaScript. For the past several years I have been writing Haskell almost exclusively.
    • kamaal 4y ago
      If you are spending significant time in your programming career modifying text. Not just code, but structural editing of text, heavy lifting text. You are making repeated modifications that confirm to a pattern, learning vim macros are something you must absolutely consider, they can make > O(n) editing steps happen in O(1) steps.
• tpaschalis 4y ago
  - So Good They Can't Ignore You. Even though kinda 'self-help'-ish and repetitive at times, it played a role in shaping the way that I think about my career. - The Daily Stoic. A collection of snippets from stoic philosophers, tied with examples from modern living, it was a good and lightweight introduction to philosophy.
  • microtonal 4y ago
    I have started reading the Daily Stoic, but I often find the commentaries underwhelming (obvious, predictable, not adding much insight).
    • sbdncuvh 4y ago
    • tpaschalis 4y ago
      I'd have to agree. I personally found that the book's structure with the themed chapters doesn't lend itself to a continuous reading; but going in small chunks as the authors intended, the commentaries felt a tad better.
• fullsend 4y ago
  I enjoy content that adds curious new information and different views to topics full of cliches, while still being relatively respectable or well researched. Coming Apart - this book described the coming separation of the US into two “classes” long before it was widely talked about. Today most talk about it as a political divide. This book tackles it as a divide between knowledge workers and the rest. A controversial take that adds much needed food for thought to the conversation. If you’ve lived poor and you’ve also lived in a place like Palo Alto, you’ll be astounded by how readily you can point and say, “that’s me”. Lots of fascinating statistics. Bowling Alone - a great book about the collapse of US social life. Dense, lots of statistics, but a clear picture is laid out of increasing isolation and alienation. Read it alongside something like Consumer’s Republic to understand how so much of this stems from the selfishness and individuality encouraged by consumerism in post-war America. Triumph of the City - an excellent take that can be used as food for thought when people are talking about how dirty cities are. In truth, the author argues, they are our greenest “invention” ever. Lots of good evidence. Imagine collecting the trash if every human lived on their own acre of land. The sewage, the energy usage. Cities are incredibly efficient and clean. The Man Who Solved The Market - everyone interested in finance needs to read this and it’s precursor More Money Than God. The Bogleheads and their index fund ilk are often correct when they say “money managers all lose to an index after fees”. Beating the market is nigh on impossible for all but a few. Most of those few work at Renaissance Technologies. Their Medallion Fund has made 36% after fees every single year since 1989. The fund does its best in market crash years. Closed to outside investors. A story of mathematicians essentially building models that can predict the future reliably. Utterly fascinating, the most successful money printer ever built. As a bonus, we learn that Jim Simons originally controlled this printer and spent the money helping US math teachers. He then ceded control to Robert Mercer, who used the printer’s output to fund Cambridge Analytica, Steve Bannon, Trump, etc. The Snowball - a biography of Warren Buffet that tells an incredible story. The story is one of total obsession. Of a human who literally started from a few dollars, learned about some principles like compounding at age 6, and applied the exact same principles every day for the rest of his life with very little deviation. The craziest part of this story is how every 10 years, he’s surrounded by people saying “times have changed, you’re missing out”. Then those people get blown up by whatever black swan, and Warren’s snowball just grows and grows. He didn’t become a billionaire till he was in his 50’s but the snowball is still growing and he’s one of the richest people alive.
• martopix 4y ago
  The question is incredibly vague to me. All books that you find interesting or that you simply have fun reading are worth investing your time in. So I could mention wonderful classics of literature. It sounds like you want "insightful" books in a philosophical sense. To those who mentioned Marcus Aurelius's meditations, I recommend the reading of "Zen mind beginner's mind". Along the same lines of somewhat spiritual books, "Siddartha" is a classic and also Khalil Gibran's "The Prophet". Very different: for my personal history, reading "Goedel, Escher, Bach" when I was 18 deeply affected my vision of things. Other science books I loved: "the unfolding of language" (historical linguistics) and "the world within the world" (physics and philosophy of physics). For something much more recent, that changed my view of the contemporary world, I recommend "Factfulness" by Hans Rosling. It's about understanding "poor" countries in their variety and in a less stereotyped way, but especially about understanding that living conditions across the world, essentially without exception, have massively improved over the last century. I feel Rosling's is only part of the story, though, and "Sapiens" (mentioned by others below) tells parts of the other half. I also like poetry, and in the rare occasions I am in the right frame of mind and focus to read poetry, it feels like a powerful meditation or prayer. If you want to "expand" your vision of things, one thing I tried to do, and loved, is reading as much as possible books from other cultures, for example postcolonial literature. I particularly liked Chinua Achebe's "things fall apart". Somewhat related, "the moon and the bonfires" was deeply moving to me, the life of a man in agricultural Italy after ww2. The reason why I put these together is that they do something extraordinary: we are used to descriptions of africans during the colonization process, or of poor Italians after the war, but we are not very used to them being full three-dimensional characters, people like us, and stepping in their shoes. Finally I enjoy travel books, for similar reasons. Among my favourites is "the road to Oxiana", written in the 1930s, and full of british humour. Also, Rory Stewart (british politician, diplomat and academic) walked Afghanistan in 2002 and told the story in "The places in between". Very, very helpful for understanding Afghanistan beyond the news. I could go on forever!
• el_shmc 4y ago
  Lean Startup series It know better understand the importance of testing ideas before investing time and money.
• jhanschoo 4y ago
  I'm in the slow process of reading through Peter Adamson's A History of Western Philosophy without any gaps. Going through his Classical Philosophy volume, he contextualizes how the philosophers were responding to each other and developed their ideas from each other and their society, and gives easy, simple examples to illustrate these ideas. I could empathize with how in context those ideas were awesome and powerful new ways of looking at the world for their time. Note that the books are adapted from a free podcast of the same name, hence perhaps why they feel so comparatively approachable. As a podcast, however, I didn't find it easy listening in the usual contexts and states of mind that you would be listening to podcasts. I had previously tried reading Anthony Kenney's a new history of Western Philosophy, but it didn't seem to me to contextualize each philosopher against their forebears as well as Adamson. This made each discussion seen isolated and made it more difficult to empathize how each philosopher grew to have the ideas they had, and why they are so interesting, since one ends up compelled to compare against our current far more sophisticated milleu. Now, why I find these books so rewarding; they elucidate how we have come to have the frameworks through which we perceive the world, and also provide contrasts to them.
  • Pietertje 4y ago
    Did you consider Russell's A history of western philosophy or The Worldly Philosophers by Heilbroner? I'm considering to read one of the two, would like to hear how they would compare to Adamson.
    • jhanschoo 4y ago
      I've touched Russell's history, but that was quite some time ago. I would recommend Adamson over Russell, if only for being more approachable. But in addition to that, Wikipedia's article on Russell's history mentions that it's quite polemic on the ancient philosophers. I do recall not being satisfied with Russell's treatment of the atomists (Democritus, etc.), so I've just had a look at it again: Adamson contextualizes the atomists (who content that there are indivisible particles) as a reaction against Zeno and his paradox, which seems very plausible. On the other hand, before he discusses how the atomists might be reacting to their forebears, Russell says > The atomists, unlike Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, sought to explain the world without introducing the notion of purpose or final cause" But what use is comparing the atomists against the later thinkers? Russell seems to have an interest in showing the superiority of a mechanistic view of the world. > The atomists asked the mechanistic question, and gave a mechanistic answer. Their successors, until the Renaissance, were more interested in the teleological question, and thus led science up a blind alley. > In regard to both questions alike, there is a limitation which is often ignored, both in popular thought and in philosophy. Neither question can be asked intelligibly about reality as a whole (including God), but only about parts of it. As regards the teleological explanation, it usually arrives, before long, at a Creator, or at least an Artificer, whose purposes are realized in the course of nature. But if a man is so obstinately teleological as to continue to ask what purpose is served by the Creator, it becomes obvious that his question is impious. It is, moreover, unmeaning, since, to make it significant, we should have to suppose the Creator created by some super-Creator whose purposes He served. The conception of purpose, therefore, is only applicable within reality, not to reality as a whole. So you can see how Russell has as part of his aim trying to share his own views and judge these earlier thinkers with some hindsight. On the other hand, Adamson is primarily trying to interpret these authors and speculate and relate how they might have arrived at the conclusions they might have arrived at. I've not read Adamson beyond the Classical Philosophy volume, so I hope that the quality remains just as good.
• dreadnip 4y ago
  The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff Both offer a fictitious and simplistic introduction to eastern philosophy. Growing up as an atheist in Western Europe, I never realized just how deep the influence of religion on our culture, traditions and history was. These books gave me a playful look at Buddhism and Taoism, right when I needed it. Shifted my entire worldview.
• qubex 4y ago
  The Computational Beauty of Nature, Gary William Flake (1997) Why Stock Markets Crash, Didier Sornette (2003)
• pchm 4y ago
  Taleb's Incerto (Fooled by Randomness, Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game). Opens your eyes to a wide array of fallacies that govern our daily life (unknown unknowns, "experts" explaining past events as obvious in retrospect, the news, predictions, survivorship bias, confirmation bias, iatrogenics and a lot, lot more) — almost to a fault, i.e. if you take it too far, you'll see these fallacies everywhere and things like stories of success/failure, biographies (or history in general) etc. will no longer make the same impression.
  • madmax108 4y ago
    Maybe it's just me, but I feel nearly all of Taleb's books should be blog posts instead of full length books. I first read Black Swan a long while back, and two things popped out at me. 1) The author comes across quite snobby and high-handed in his writing (which has translated over time on his Twitter as well for those who follow him on there) and 2) The essence of the book was distillable into a much smaller novella. Picked up Antifragile and Fooled By Randomness over time just to see if the hype is worth it, but none of the books honestly bowled me over or presented anything enlightening or explored ideas not explored in a better manner elsewhere. I feel like Taleb falls into the same fallacy he preaches about in his books to a large extent. But then again, given his popularity, maybe it's just my opinion.
    • koonsolo 4y ago
      > Maybe it's just me, but I feel nearly all of Taleb's books should be blog posts instead of full length books. I have the same feeling. Don't get me wrong, I really respect Taleb and his insights. But I skipped a large part of Black Swan because some parts are more literature than insights.
      • credit_guy 4y ago
        He got one thing right: the picked a great title for a book. "Black Swan". These 2 words together made him a multi-millionaire. The content of the book is quite lame, but darn, what a killer title.
    • 4y ago
• qwery 4y ago
  I haven't read many books that I felt weren't worth "investing time in". Books are good for you. A couple of favourites anyway: - New Grub Street, George Gissing, 1891 - Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1867 - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813 - Candide, Voltaire, 1759
  • rambambram 4y ago
    I recently read Candide. What a story! Time well spent reading it, and some good lessons along the way. P.S. Just search for the title, there are a lot of free e-books available online.
    • qwery 4y ago
      Absolutely! I should have mentioned the fact that you can get all of these as free ebooks easily (because they are old and in the public domain) at e.g. Standard Ebooks[0] with a quick search. [0] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks https://standardebooks.org/ebooks
• kupopuffs 4y ago
  Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow. The story of America's greatest loser
• ianai 4y ago
  “There is no virtue which is final; all are initial. The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices. "Forgive his crimes, forgive his virtues too, Those smaller faults, half converts to the right." “ https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/circles/ https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/circles...
• grecy 4y ago
  Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. It changed how I look at the world, and our place in it. The sequels are equally as good and I've read them all many times.
• mnsh 4y ago
  I have maintained a list of such books and articles here: https://www.mnsh.me/blog/favourite-books-and-articles https://www.mnsh.me/blog/favourite-books-and-articles
• brailsafe 4y ago
  Never split the difference was helpful in thinking about conflict negotiation
• littlezhu 4y ago
  The book first comes into my mind is Principles(Ray Dalio). It not only inspires me but also teach me how to shape my mindset, thinking process to achieve what you want in life.
• pkszg 4y ago
  I like to read a wide variety of genre from fiction to human psychology. For the mind: Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg - A great book on how to communcate more effectively with others. Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman -He is the only psychologist ever to recieve the Nobel Prize if I remember correctly. This book scientifically digests human biases and errors and how they influence our every day lives and decision making. Sometimes it a bit too technical for my taste and I like mostly the first part. (its not an easy read) I rarely had so many Aha-moments. A random walk down on wall street - For investing your income in stocks. What to do and what no to do. Simple, with facts. Sapiens by Harari -Interesting, I remember it was a great read and fun read. Connecting a lot of dots :) On programming: Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann - I am failry a junior web dev, so any material that is clear and explains well is a great source of information and inspiration. This is such a book. Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective by Randal E. Bryant and David R. O'Hallaron - Teaches CS from the basics, which for me is a great source since I don't have a CS degree. I complement it with other materials from the internet (such as Harvard's CS50) for learning the fundamentals paralell working in my daily web dev job. Its a long book, so It will take a couple of months, years to go thorugh, but definitely worth the effort. Fictions I love, without much introduction: Lord of the Rings Dune (first book) Game of thrones books For me JRRs storytelling is outstanding, the books are better than the serires IMO. Spiritual Books: (I am not a religous person by any means and I do not follow traditions) Spirituality for me means a deeper connection with the universe. If I really want to dig deeper than everyday work-life stuff I listen/read these books. Usually when there is a great emotional upheaval in my life or when I feel my daily distractions failed on me. Power of now by Eckhart Tolle - This book gives me the occasional goosebumps, a great summary of all spiritual teachings (before becoming religions) in a really simple way. If you are interested in such, I highly recommend it. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - I see it mentioned here already, no intro needed. Letters by Seneca - This book is a proof for me that the essential human experience, the core of what makes us human does not change over time. Seneca was a great stoic thinker, who is very relatable by anyone even today (and probably will be for many millenia) Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Suzuki Roshi - All true spiritual teaching have the same source, but all are expressed differently. This is a great, simple powerful book to read if you lean towards buddhism. A Course in Miracles (no official author) -Now this is a heavy read. It has a textbook with daily practices also. This is definitely not a book for everyone.
• lightmyst 4y ago
  I don't really read books, but I've really enjoyed reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes lately. The stories themselves aren't that interesting but the way Holmes collects, processes and works with data assisted by his methodical and almost pedantic approach to draw relevant conclusions from said data using his extensive knowledge of previous cases is extremely engaging. Now that the 21st century is entirely data driven, I feel these books give a very amateurish but still relevant perspective as to all the things we could do with the knowledge available to us.
  • ageitgey 4y ago
    They are also short enough that you can read a whole story in the evening before bed or whatever, which is great! And while I love the stories, I also love making fun of the Victorian science/medicine tropes that pop up in them and how silly they can be.
  • rramadass 4y ago
    Make sure to read the complete Canon i.e. all 56 short stories and 4 novels (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_Sherlock_Holmes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_Sherlock_Holmes). The stories have actually much to teach one. It was the first place where the power of reasoning starting from a set of data-points was laid out in such a intelligent way. It taught you the importance of thinking in a logical manner. Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired by his professor Joseph Bell from Edinburgh Medical University who used to deduce people's occupations just from observing key physical characteristics. The main idea is to identify the key data-points from the mass of irrelevant data and then draw inferences using logical chain reasoning. If people actually practiced this mode of thinking then the World would be a far better place i.e. understand inferential statistical thinking, less scams etc. As a followup you should also read Edgar Allan Poe's four short stories; three of them featuring Auguste Dupin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Auguste_Dupin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Auguste_Dupin) and another named "The Gold Bug". They were an inspiration to Arthur Conan Doyle's creation of Sherlock Holmes and he mentions this in "A Study in Scarlet".
• brandall10 4y ago
  Robert Greene’s books, in particular 48 Laws of Power and Art of Seduction.
  • ThalesX 4y ago
    After reading the 48 Laws of Power, and feeling somewhat inspired, I also started with the Art of Seduction. Some red flags started popping up, and upon doing some research I found he heavily puts his personal touch on historical events, which ultimately brought down both books in my eyes.
    • brandall10 4y ago
      Isn't this largely true of anything in the self-help genre? Usually they take historical and personal anecdotes and try to weave some thread. They're certainly not academic treatises.
• jonathanstrange 4y ago
  Just a few non-fiction books from me this time: - Lewis Dartnell The Knowledge: This book made me realize the fragility of modern technology and how it is funded on chemical industry, shipping, oil, and the exploitation of natural resources. - Peter P. Wakker Prospect Theory: This is not an easy reading but it contains one of the few understandable and detailed explanations of rank-dependent utility theory and why early probability-weighing approaches were incorrect; a must read for anyone interested in rational decision making. - Vöcking, Alt, et. al Taschenbuch der Algorithmen: This marvelous Springer book unfortunately only seems to be available in German; it's not at all what the title suggests, but rather a book that brings the fun back to programming, like an 80s hobby programming book; various contributors lay out their favorite algorithms and techniques in short, easy to read chapters. It's like Christmas for programmers. - Rosen Handbook of Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics (Indian Edition): believe it or not, this handbook has helped me a lot with my work in philosophy; it's also the almost ideal handbook style, extremely concise but also very understandable. Of course, I didn't "read" this book but using it for reference was definitely worth it. - Scott Programming Language Pragmatics: Anybody interested in creating a programming language should read this, preferably the latest edition (I don't know if it's still updated, though); I'm convinced that even though it mostly covers "generation 4" languages and earlier, if more language designers read this book, new programming languages would be better; not that anybody needs new programming languages, Common Lisp and Ada are perfectly fine. - Jean-Claude Ellena Atlas of Perfumed Botany: Although it sounds a bit pretentious at times like the perfume market is in general (it's 90% marketing of emotions, 10% about the scent), this is a really nice and passionate book about perfumery with beautiful illustrations, written by one of the most renowned contemporary perfumers. It's also surprisingly cheap and by MIT Press. - Duff / Gormly First Aid and Wilderness Medicine: This is perhaps the best first aid book out there. Of course, it doesn't replace a practical course but it's a great reference and generally good reading if you're interested in the topic. There was another book I read as a child in German, translated from English. It fascinated me and was the main reason why I got interested in AI and ultimately studied philosophy and linguistics. It was about the Schank/Riesbeck group or some similar symbolic AI research at the time (during the 70s or early 80s) and mentioned meetings where members of the group watched Mork from Ork and analyzed Mork's misunderstandings. If anybody has an idea which book that was, please let me know!
• lbj 4y ago
  Atlas Shrugged.
• vishnugupta 4y ago
  Debt: The First 5000 Years by great late David Graeber. It opened up my mind to a whole new reality which was hidden in plain sight.
  • DeanStevenson 4y ago
    Audiobook is USD $4.19 on Audible through Sept 23, 2022.
  • wahnfrieden 4y ago
    For me it was Graeber/Wengrow’s Dawn of Everything, which validated the viability of alternative realities
• Brajeshwar 4y ago
  I read a pretty good number of books. I'm in the very beginning of distilling a list that should not exceed ten books at max. I hope I can update the list to just the best of the best according to me. Here is the start - https://brajeshwar.com/books/ https://brajeshwar.com/books/
• ColonelBlimp 4y ago
  Since time is a key part of the OP's question, The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati (published in Italy in 1940 as Il deserto dei Tartari) is an excellent novel about life and time. In other words, the mistakes we often make with how we spend our lives, time wasted without a clear purpose or enjoyment. I read it when I was in my twenties and it had a great impact on me. Now in my early fifties, I'm not sure I would have the courage to read it again.
• Yizahi 4y ago
  ITT: books programmers recommend but not really read :) . I'm guessing SICP would be recommended, Dragon book, TAOCP, some super famous philosophers centuries back and finally modern day self improvement books. As for me, I can't really say that any single book was worth it in the sense - if I didn't read it, would I have been in the worse position or would I have missed some crucial and/or unique (only in that book) knowledge? Probably not. PS: just not to sound entirely negative, I can recommend two ideas. Idea 1: there are marks in Wikipedia, which denote especially good articles. And there is a meta page with a list of top10, top100, top1000 and so on pages. I made myself a personal project to read eventually through top1000 articles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vital_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vital_articles Idea 2: find a good in-depth history channel on youtube or a streaming service, explaining in-depth certain historic evens and the whole timeline. I wager a lot of things will turn out not quite as you may have remembered or imagined. It teaches a lot about social conflicts, wars, money etc. I can recommend a series of streams but they are in Russian. Don't have an English equivalent at the moment. https://www.youtube.com/user/ButKorn https://www.youtube.com/user/ButKorn
• wseqyrku 4y ago
  'Software Engineering at Google' is a nice sporadic reading experience. (The title may sound gimmicky, but it's actually very relatable in general.)
• codedeadlock 4y ago
  I actually go via reverse route. Often times I would find something of interest on HN or Reddit which would make me feel excited. Then to fulfil the curiosity I would often read lot of blogs, articles on same topic. If I still feel that I am still not satisfied then I pick book on the topic. I usually read around 20 books in an year and all are shortlisted [1] as per the above method. Last 3 books that I have read - Code Breakers (I found the mRNA vaccine and gene editing fascinating) - How the world really works (To really understand that if the green future is really possible) - Natural Language Processing in Action (To understand how text models like GPT-3 really works [1] - https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23156763-anmol-saini?shelf=to-read https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23156763-anmol-saini?s...
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• ThalesX 4y ago
  One of the best time / insights book I've ever read, as a product builder, is The Mom Test. I think the audio version is like three hours, and it's a good read | listen in my opinion: https://www.momtestbook.com https://www.momtestbook.com
• math-dev 4y ago
  On Lisp by Paul Graham
• TheAceOfHearts 4y ago
  The Tao Te Ching is short and beautiful. It can be read in 30 minutes and reflected on for a lifetime. My favorite translation is by Stephen Mitchell.
  • methusala8 4y ago
    +1. Amazing book. Derek Lin has a good translation of this book too.
• samuell 4y ago
  These are the books that IMO felt worth really carefully digesting: Software engineering practices: - Designing Data-Intensive Applications - Site Reliability Engineering - Software Engineering at Google - Designing Event-Driven Systems - The Data-Centric Revolution - Code Complete - Data Management at Scale Self-help: - So Good They Can't Ignore You - Deep Work - A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science - Pragmatic Thinking and Learning - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Ultralerning Misc: - The book of proverbs in the Bible - The rest of the Bible - On Intelligence
  • euph0ria 4y ago
    Thanks! Agree with the bible, wildly underrated
    • TheFreim 4y ago
      It's quite unfortunate that this is the case. You can't really understand the modern western world in any meaningful way unless you know at the very least the gist of the Biblical narrative and Christian history.
      • awestroke 4y ago
        Wow, that's a spicy take.
    • swat535 4y ago
      Catholic here, just wanted to chime in with a few notes: the Bible is very hard to read because it's not even a single "book".. It's a collection of books called the Biblical Canon and has been written by many authors, over the vast period of times for nearly 2000 years. Further, it contains many genres and verses with plenty of parables; So think of it more as a compiled library. If you would like to read it on your own, I recommend selecting a translation that is easier to understand. My favorite one is of course the Word on Fire Bible [1], though it's not a full Bible yet, the Gospels, Acts, letters and Revelation are already included and other volumes are coming; that should be enough to get you started at least. Good luck! [1] https://www.wordonfire.org/bible/ https://www.wordonfire.org/bible/ P.S Anyone is welcome to read it regardless of their spiritual outlook. Same goes for attending Mass or accessing various Church services and programs.
• Bancakes 4y ago
  Books are free though?
  • desio 4y ago
    If we aren't counting the cost of time, then money is free too.
• Sc_cs 4y ago
  The Big Billion Startup - Story of Flipkart It actually helped us understand the startup scenario in developing countries.
• a-bit-of-code 4y ago
  'The Psychology of Money' was worth the time. It is a very impactful book for anyone that has anything to do with earning & spending money. IOW, all of us.
• glennos 4y ago
  Losing the Signal is a really well written book about RIM/Blackberry. A cautionary tale about losing focus.
• lonelyasacloud 4y ago
  Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth by Gitta Sereny. To avoid evil there is nothing more important than understanding how highly intelligent and likeable people end up perpetuating it. This book is a stunningly well written exploration of that.
• oracardo 4y ago
  The Overstory by Richard Powers: this book changed the way I look at trees. I'll be driving some days and out of nowhere notice a tree and appreciate it. This book inspired me to consider that there is an objective meaning to life. The Incerto Series by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: where to start...I started reading this series over a decade ago and I still think about it weekly. It can be very dense to get through as I took a lot of notes. But I think it's worth the trouble. One of my favorite chapters is via negativa. This is the concept that it is easier to know what NOT to do than what should be done. Many interested ideas flow out from that when it comes to personal health, public policy, and morality. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman: this book opened up my eyes to a host of mental biases. It's similar to some of Taleb's work but IMO easier to read. My favorite chapter surrounded the idea of the self as your memory vs your experience. Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it?
  • sedawk 4y ago
    > Thought experiment: if you could take your dream vacation at no expense but would have no memories or photos/videos of the trip would you do it? Of course I would, there is no downside to it. Even if I have no memory of it after the fact, the goodness that would result from such a vacation would remain with me (and hopefully affect me in a positive way). Plus, I get to do it all over again; because, if I had no memory, it never happened! Win-win ;-)
    • oracardo 4y ago
      The downside is time spent without any memories. If I could snap my fingers and appear 7 days in the future, my body having experienced a vacation but my mind having no recollection what did I really gain? And at what cost?
      • sedawk 4y ago
        >what did I really gain? This is what I was trying to say: gain being the good effects dream vacation had on your mental health. Cost, of course is time, but you'd pay that anyways.
• dotsam 4y ago
  * Philosophy Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation. Surprisingly readable and insightful, even if you don't buy his metaphysics. Einstein had Schopenhauer's portrait on his wall and considered him a genius. * Poetry John Milton - Paradise Lost Powerful and beautiful writing. * Fiction Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel. Funny and a real feast of words (the translation is a work of art in itself) Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain. Haunting and moving Pierre Choderlos de Laclos - Dangerous Liaisons. Scandalous, gripping. Ivan Turgenev - First Love. A masterclass in writing. Short, sensitive and exquisitely told. Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time. Exceptionally rich and a beautiful study of love. Reading it is like living another life. PG Wodehouse - the Jeeves series. Hilarious, perfectly frivolous, light and sunny * Non-fiction Stuart Russell - Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control. Potential bad outcomes from AI and what we might be able to do about them Noam Chomsky - Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies. How public discourse is shaped and controlled Karl Popper - The Open Society and its Enemies. How to work against totalitarianism
  • mindcrime 4y ago
    Karl Popper - The Open Society and its Enemies. How to work against totalitarianism I've had this on my shelf waiting to be read for quite some time. I suddenly get the sense that it's more timely and topical than ever. Will probably start it soon.
  • cetahfh14615 4y ago
    > Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation. Actually just ordered this about a week ago. Read a couple articles about him and got the impression that he shares a lot with early Christianity (and also Buddhism) > Marcel Proust - In Search of Lost Time. Exceptionally rich and a beautiful study of love. Reading it is like living another life. Haven't read the Proust but I'd say the same for War and Peace
    • dotsam 4y ago
      > got the impression that he shares a lot with early Christianity (and also Buddhism) Schopenhauer revered the Upanishads (foundational Hindu texts), and was one of the first thinkers in the West to share key aspects of Indian philosophy. He was very critical of Christianity, and was a staunch atheist. Bryan Magee's 'The Philosophy of Schopenhauer' is an excellent companion to The World as Will and Representation and well worth reading.
• mvonballmo 4y ago
  Summa Technologiae (Electronic Mediations) by Stanisław Lem (1966) From my notes: "This is a non-fiction work translated from the original Polish. It is not a light work: it encompasses Lem’s complex and intricate musings and theories on technology, nature, genetics, cosmology, philosophy, biology, information theory, ecology, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, robots, programming, identity (cloning), human nature and how these all relate to mankind’s possible future or lack thereof. He discusses the likely shape of galactic civilizations as well as the possible composition or origins of its components, where their intelligence comes from, where it would likely develop, where it wouldn’t, why science fiction is lazy and, above all, he keeps the discussion rigorously supported by data, even when he seems to be engaging in the most whimsical flights of fancy." "It is not an easy read, but it is legitimately a work of staggering genius. You don’t have to agree with him on everything, but you can’t argue with his method, with his intellectual rigor and devotion to the scientific method to reduce the ineffability of who we are and where we’re headed."
• doitLP 4y ago
  Against the Grain by James C. Scott. Eye opening take on early stages in history The entire Aubrey-Maturin series starting with Master and Commander. Exquisite writing, funny, interesting, deep characters and chock full of interesting philosophy and life observations. These books are my happy place: like most fans of the series I have read them all 5 times, which I have never done with another series.
• angryGhost 4y ago
  Java for dummies.
• peteforde 4y ago
  Three non-fiction books that really changed my life, at different moments of my life: 1. Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone 2. The Teenage Liberation Handbook 3. The Win Without Pitching Manifesto I read a lot of fiction across many genres, but my long-time favourite is Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.
• dvfjsdhgfv 4y ago
  Chogyal Namkhai Norbu's The Crystal and the Way of Light. It was a discovery on so many levels.
• codexjourneys 4y ago
  I'm reading The Once and Future World by J.B. MacKinnon, and I'm reading extra slowly because I'm enjoying it so much. It's about nature, how we're wired to think the wild landscapes we grew up with were pristine, how it's truly evolved through history in response to humans' presence and it's hard to really pinpoint a baseline, and how much wildlife and plant life has vanished so far in the last two hundred years (from whatever fuzzy baseline we can arrive at). Earlier this year, I read Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows and on almost every page I was taking notes! A huge eye-opener and felt like a missing link across sciences and social sciences. Also extremely readable and engaging.
• BenoitP 4y ago
  I'll go against the question since I believe this is about elevating one's thinking and not merely about books. Just like learning the math theorem is practically worthless without doing the exercises (at least to me), I'll advise to just do something in the domain you want to be elevated in. Of course this doesn't apply to things you can't hope to do: for example History's lessons; Invading another country all alone is quite resource-consuming. Having your outputs to show the outside world is quite gratifying! You're not a pure function. Self Help: * Craft your own time management system (and write and sell a book about it) * Create a blog in which you ponder about life * Try to gracefully start a conversation with random people. You never know what you can learn * Begin a new sport, like climbing Tech: * Write a silly website in Typescript + React, or WebGL * Craft a new small language of your own * Do an HTML parser in APL * Port a concurrent library to Zig * Like pg says, identify things you think are the future and do things with them Misc: * Try to decipher a latin text just from how the words resemble the words you know Basically just give some ressource to that weird side project idea that keeps popping up in your head. Do the mistakes first, and only then learn the theory of what can work. And iterate back and forth between exercises and theory. Let the exercises guide what you want to learn. It'll help you deal with failures and lack of results and might even give you the freedom of being weird.
  • tailspin2019 4y ago
    I enjoyed your curveball response to this question!
• saiya-jin 4y ago
  Hyperion cantos - sci-fi, basically 7 very different stories tied together explaining why things are happening and how characters are tied together. 1st book is excellent, 2nd is a must to understand how things continue. I liked all 4, I think it lost the steam slightly around 3rd book but all are excellent experience.
• alfiedotwtf 4y ago
  "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. Before that I never really thought deeply about economics, but afterwards, it's almost like you have a deeper sense of predictions on cause-and-effect... there will always be second and third order effects (and higher harmonics so to speak).
• drunpy 4y ago
  The Pragmatic Programmer (Andrew Hunt, Dave Thomas), The Manager's Path (Camille Fourier), How To Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie). These books helped me to realize that many insecurities I had where "common" in Software Engineering field. The last one is especially good if you're looking for improve your relations with people.
• jarek83 4y ago
  *Newest history A World At Arms - A Global History of World War II by Gerhard L. Weinberg I found it to be a shot of modern history that gave me surprisingly good context for many of current events. I really started to see world at different perspective . The author tries his best to avoid having a bias.
• RandomWorker 4y ago
  I find reading a book to be a very meditative experience so many of the books I’ve read I enjoyed from that aspect and don’t consider it an investment with returns. That being said.. Sapients was absolutely mind blowing and before it’s time. Many ideas in that book still resonate through the zeitgeist. Still worth reading.
• 28304283409234 4y ago
  Peter Levine's "The Tiger Awakens".
• Frummy 4y ago
  The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse, it shows this life lived for pure intellectual values and compares it to living for the world via two individuals and an academic institution partly isolated from the rest of society. The short stories at the end are also impactful, for example on spiritual guidance to others at the cost of having few to turn to
• Valakas_ 4y ago
  1. The Body Keeps the Score (Bessel van der Kolk); 2. CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving (Peter Walker); 3. Whole Again (Jackson McKenzie); 4. The Complete Robot (Isaac Asimov); 5. Outliers: The Science of Success (Malcolm Gladwell); 6. The Compound Effect (Darren Hardy).
• cetahfh14615 4y ago
  One is career related: I always keep coming back to the Cormen algorithms book because of its clarity and beauty of explanation. Sure, you can find explanations on places like geeksforgeeks, but they will never match the clarity of the former Two fiction: War and Peace: There's just has so much life in this book. The things you read, they age with you over time. I wish I could read it in the original Ulysses: I don't know why I like this book tbh. There's a lot of "fluff" to it, but the parts that are good are so exceptionally good you will need to come back to them. I started reading the Wake a year ago and took a break bc busy. I still think about it though: he writes about culture like it's this drunken, surreal, fever dream. It's like you read it and wonder if this is how things actually are
• EdwardCoffin 4y ago
  The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn by Richard W. Hamming. This has chapters on a variety of science, engineering, and math topics, and each one has what I found to be pretty good insights and views on them. The Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver. I already knew I liked certain kinds of poetry, but never really understood why. This book breaks down metrical poetry and explains how it works. The Rules for the Direction of the Mind by Descartes, aka the regulae.
• hestefisk 4y ago
  I would like to learn futures trading (technical / mechanical swing trading) properly. What’s the best book to learn this? I’m familiar / experienced in equities trading but futures is somewhat different (commodities, FX).
• askiiart 4y ago
  The Dictator's Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith It shows how politics works, and how there's no difference between democrats and dictators. Very interesting.
  • Bakary 4y ago
    This book is a bit like Guns, Germs and Steel or Sapiens. Very popular, very quotable, but tends to give the false impression that the theory contained within is uncontroversially correct.
• Koshkin 4y ago
  1. Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. 2. The Satanic Verses by Rushdie. (It felt like these two books have something in common.)
• erellsworth 4y ago
  The Jungle by Upton Sinclair Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
• alfor 4y ago
  Hardcore zen Man in search of meaning Atlas shrugged: too long winded, but popped my progressive reality buble. Return to religion: made me see how most of our problems(depression, anxiety, meaninglessness) are caused by our lack of transcendental Recently the bible, Marc, Genesis. But I saw the Peterson biblical lecture before, without that I would have not appreciated for sure. I see all around me that the progressives are captured by ideologies, most cannot see clearly because their religious shaped hole almost always get filled with the ideology du jour. They tend to live meaningless lives, don’t have kids or very few, their couples are brittle, they run after money, travel, pleasures and then find out that it doesn’t give sustainable happiness. My take is that our mind is religious even if you don’t want it to be, kind of our operating system. Better put something tested and reliable (with a few updates) than rewrite from scratch and fall in the same traps than everyone before.
• fnordpiglet 4y ago
  Kreyszig’s Advanced Engineering Mathematics.
• greatbuckleroo 4y ago
  * The Alchemist - Paulo Coehlo * East of Eden - John Steinbeck * How to Avoid a Climate Disaster - Bill Gates
• TreeInBuxton 4y ago
  Brandon Sanderon's Stormlight Archive series! It's a fantasy series that doesn't shy away from topics such as Mental Health, and all of the characters are extremely well written.
• mstdokumaci 4y ago
  Existential Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom This book originally was for therapists, but later it got very popular and simplified for the common reader. I think it helps better than anything if you want to grow your soft skills. Because it does not have some generic advice on common life scenarios. It dives deep into the root cause of many issues any conscious living being will have. I find the mirror it holds to your face very healing for a lot of issues.
• mudrockbestgirl 4y ago
  For nonfiction, one thing I've realized is that books are highly contextual and personal. A book that I found utterly useless and couldn't finish 10 years ago is suddenly extremely relevant to my life situation, and a book that I was excited to read again because it was my favorite a few years back is now completely irrelevant and boring. That's why book ratings and recommendations aren't really useful... Just read whatever topic you're currently curious about. It's probably different for fiction, but I've just recently started to get into that.
• skinney6 4y ago
  A Confederacy of Dunces